This is your guide to the can't-miss shows of the busiest season for the arts. That includes the U.S. premiere of a much-anticipated Ursula K. Le Guin documentary at NW Film Center, innovative modern dance imported by White Bird and a format-busting new play by Shaking the Tree. And we didn't forget the movie featuring Nic Cage rampaging through the woods with a chain saw.

But this year, we also decided to dig a little deeper.

While this issue previews the most exciting art events of the season, it also serves as an introduction to the locals who are creating year-round—the newest wave of under-the-radar Portland artists who are working to make their voices heard, often with meager budgets, and refusing to conform to expectations.

We've profiled Miss Anthology, a publication dedicated to exposing femme, genderqueer and LGBTQIA+ comic artists who are more interested in stories about cats than men in capes. We spoke to an actor who created his own company to push for more racially diverse theater productions, both onstage and behind the scenes.

TriptheDark is accessing a new audience for dance with shows that reference Twin Peaks and Labyrinth, and the Portland Circuit is helping small-scale Portland filmmakers get their movies screened in every quadrant of the city. Queer Opera Experience is trying to open up an antiquated art form to modern crowds, while pop-up art school Home School is attempting to bring more people into the arts by circumventing the traditional art world completely.

Whether you're looking for a day-in-the-life drama at Artists Rep or an opera about Portland's most famous stripper, you'll find it here.

Because Portland art isn't one thing. And this time of year, we all become patrons.